Molina Paves Way to Sweep

Manager Mike Scioscia can talk all he wants about focusing on today and tomorrow, about not looking back, but there was no minimizing the significance of what the Angels accomplished in Yankee Stadium over the weekend.

Catcher Bengie Molina had four hits, including a three-run home run, Kelvim Escobar provided seven innings of three-hit, two-run ball, and Troy Percival recorded a rare four-pitch save in Sunday’s 4-3 victory over the New York Yankees, completing the Angels’ first three-game Yankee Stadium sweep in five years.

“Definitely,” Percival said, when asked if there’s added meaning to a sweep in Yankee Stadium. “This is a playoff team. You want to show you can play with any of these teams and step on the teams that are not playing well. We ran into a Yankee team that is not playing that well. We realized that, and we took advantage of it.”

The Angels, who moved within half a game of Oakland in the American League West, extended their winning streak to five and have won 13 of 17 games. Just as important as the accumulation of victories has been the type of baseball brick and mortar used to build them.

Angel starters have been competitive and gone deep into games, and the bullpen has been effective for the most part, dominant at times. The Angels have added some pop to a somewhat punch-less attack, hitting 14 home runs in the last eight games, they’ve hit better in the clutch, and they’ve run the bases with aggression. Their defense has been solid, and sometimes spectacular.

“That’s a great team over there,” Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez said. “They’re playing with a lot of urgency right now. They pretty much came here and whipped our butts. They were very intense.”

After a soggy Saturday, when a 3-hour, 42-minute rain delay marred the Angels’ victory, the storm clouds cleared and the humidity disappeared Sunday, creating as pristine a setting as can be had in baseball: a near capacity crowd of 53,885 in tradition-rich Yankee Stadium, 72 degrees, and not a cloud in the sky.

The Angels responded with a picture-perfect game.

Escobar showed almost no ill effects from a blister that hampered him in his last start, bouncing back from a two-run third inning, which featured run-scoring doubles by Bernie Williams and Gary Sheffield, with four hitless innings, in which he struck out eight, several on nasty split-finger fastballs.

Escobar said the blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand “came up a little bit in the fifth, but it didn’t bother me.”

With a runner on and two out in the seventh, Scioscia came to the mound to make sure Escobar was OK, and Escobar responded with a strikeout of Williams to end the inning.

“I thought he was pulling me out -- that’s the first time he came out to the mound and I wasn’t pulled,” Escobar (8-9) said. “That was a huge vote of confidence.”

Down, 2-0, the Angels rallied in the fifth when Jose Guillen reached on an infield single and Jeff DaVanon bunted for a single against starter Kevin Brown. Adam Kennedy flied to right, but Molina, who sat out the first three weeks of August because of a broken index finger on his right hand, lofted a 1-and-2 slider over the wall in left field for his ninth home run this season and a 3-2 Angel lead.

“It was a slider that he meant to throw down and away,” said Molina, who added singles in the third, seventh and ninth innings. “He left it over the plate, and I hit it.”

Molina, a two-time Gold Glove Award winner, is known more for his defense than his offense, but in 67 games, he’s batting .295 with 45 runs batted in. He’s hitting .333 with runners in scoring position, and six of his nine homers have either tied a score or put the Angels ahead.

“He’s been a clutch hitter for this team for the last couple of years,” Escobar said of Molina. “Every time we’re in a tight situation and need a big hit, he seems to get it.”

The Angels added a huge insurance run in the sixth inning when Darin Erstad walked and later scored on Guillen’s sacrifice fly for a 4-2 lead, a big enough margin to absorb Sheffield’s homer against Brendan Donnelly in the eighth. Percival made quick work of the Yankees in the ninth for his 24th save, and the sweep was complete.

“This time of year, every win is significant,” Erstad said. “You want to win each series. Winning a series here is huge. A sweep is a bonus.”